Improvement in nursery-chairs



E. S. FRENCH.

NURSERY CHAIRS.

Pawn-ted July 18, 1876..

N-PEYERS FHOTOJJTHOGRAFNER, WASHINGTON, D. C-

Unrrnn STATES -PAT rr9rrtca ERASTUS 'S. FRENCH, OF TEMPLETON, ASSIGNOB TO THOMPSON, PERLEY & WAITE, OF BALDWINSVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN NURSERY-CHAIRS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 179,851, dated J nly 18, 1876; application filed June 17, 1876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it knownthat I, ERASTUS S. FRENCH, of Templeton, in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented Improvements in Ohilds Chair, of which the following is a specification:

This invention is an improvement in that class of household conveniences for use by children, of which the patent granted for the invention of- Tenney 8t Hobbs, No. 164,782, dated June 22, 1875, affords an example.

This device, as well as that shown in the aforesaid patent, can be used as a high chair, as a low chair, and as a carriage; but this device is improved, in that, by its adjustment, it can be made into a rocking-chair, and also into a reclining-chair, and into a bed or crib; and the detail of arrangement and operation .of the legs, by which they are equally extended and contracted, differs from that shown in the aforesaid patent.

The drawing shows four side views of the apparatus in difi'erent positions.

Figure 1 shows the high chair. Fig. 2 shows the chair lowered. Fig. 3 shows the adjustment by which the rollers or wheels are broughtinto use, so as to make a carriage. Fig. 4 shows the adjustment of the legs by which the device is changed into a rocking-chair. It also shows adjustments of the back and foot rest, by which the device maybe used as a reclining-chair, and also as a bed or crib.

a is the seat, to which the back I) is hinged at c, the arms 01 and supports e being hinged together and to the back and seat, as shown, the slotted quadrants f, attached to the supports 6, affording, by their set-screws g, means for securing the back in relative position to the seat. The foot-rest h is pivoted to the seat, as shown, and when thrown upward,-as seen in Figs. 3 and 4., canbe held up by adjustment of the button i. When the foot-rest is thus thrown up and secured, it makes a headboard for the bed or crib, the back being lowered, as seen in dotted lines, Fig. 4, to make the extended fiat surface needed, on which to place the bedding required. The frames j, which may be of wood or metal, as most convenient, support the seat and are braced together, and the legs is are pivoted thereunto at Z Z, parts of the legs concentric with said pivots being made as segments of gears, which mesh together, as shown. The front legs are braces, made into a frame-likewise the rearlegs-and each frame is provided with a pair of wheels or rolls, as in the patent before referred to, and for the same purpose.

Instead of forming or placing the geared segments as and where shown, the pivots Z Z might be made as arbors fixed in the legs and passing loosely through the frames j, on which arbors and between frames j j the segments could be fixed. front'and rear legs are made suitably curved, so that, when in the position shownin Fig. 4, they form the sweep needed for rockers of an ordinary rocking-chair, the lower edges of the frames j j being formed to coincide in the sweep.

To hold the seat at desired height by keepin g the legs from spreading, a spring-pawl, m, is secured to the braces connecting the rear pair of legs, which pawl, by engaging in the teeth of the rack n, locks the front and rear legs against spreading apart, until the pawl is purposely disengaged from the rack.

Other devices could be equally well employed to keep the front and rear legs from spreading, except at will-as, for example, a quadrant and set-screw could connect the front and rear pairs of legs; or a notched bar, pivoted to a front leg, could be made to engage a pin fixed in a rear leg; or a pin in any leg could be made to enter any of a series of holes in one of the frames j, as it will be observed that it either of the pairs of legs are locked the other pair is also looked, because I the pairs are united by gearing.

It will be noticed that the bed or crib and the upright or the inclined adjustment of the chair can be made as a standing arrangement, at any height within the capacity of the mechanism, or they may be lowered and arranged to rock, as may be deemed desirable.

I claim-- 1. The chair made with movable legs formed with curves, and arranged substantially as described, so that by changes in position of the legs, they support the chair seat upon their ends, making a fixed chair, or upon their The adjacent edges of the curved edges, making a rocking-chair, as set name to this specification in the presence of forth. two subscribing witnesses.

2. The combination, with the chair-seat, ar ranged to stand fixedly or upon rockers, as ERASTUS S. FRENCH. set forth, of the pivoted and adjustable back Witnesses: b and foot-rest h, for the purpose specified. WM. HOLDEN,

In testimony whereof I have signed my CHARLES F. TENNEY. 

